The background of the invention will be set forth in two parts.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains generally to games and in particular to mechanical and electronic games wherein the player's skill is directed against a random or pseudo-random algorithm requiring both strategy and tactics, and also quick reaction time.
2 Description of the Prior Art
Games, as best as can be determined, are as old as mankind. Some games, such as roulette, are strictly games of chance. Some games, such as chess, are strictly games of strategy and tactics. Still other games, such as tennis, require in addition to strategy and tactics, physical coordination and timing. More recently there have appeared a number of mechanical games of the amusement parlor type such as Japanese pachinko, various American pinball games, one-arm bandits (or "fruit-machines"), mechanical shooting galleries, simulated auto races, and, more recently, electronic games such as simulated "ping-pong" and tank warfare games wherein the scores and the positions of the various playing pieces (both those controlled by the player and those controlled by the machine) are displayed on a cathode ray tube. Furthermore, the above mentioned amusement parlor games may also incorporate a limited amount of electronic circuitry and/or displays and scoring logic.
The present miniaturized electronics revolution has also been responsible for the appearance of hand-held games such as a calculator which processes stored chess-playing algorithms (such as is briefly described on page 44 of "Electronics Magazine" for Mar. 4, 1976) and an all-electronic roulette wheel using LEDs to represent the spinning balls (such as is described on pages 69 and 70 of the October, 1975 issue of "Popular Electronics Magazine"). The use of liquid crystal display elements is also known in the gaming apparatus art as can be seen from U.S. Pat. No. 3,929,338 in the name of Juergen Peter Busch, while British Patent Specification No. 1,107,552 in the name of Barrington John Leonard White discloses an electronic "fruit machine".
However, the prior art does not disclose any portable electronic game that requires a relatively high degree of skill on the part of the player and yet which do not require costly display apparatus (such as television sets or cathode ray tubes) for the operation of the games.